enseñanza-aprendizaje

I spend a lot of my week working in IEIMC's 1st and 2nd grade classrooms. I help with reading, math, garden-work, and just general crowd control. These 22 little ones bring so much joy to my weeks at school. They are quick with laughs, hugs, and smiles. They have taught me more about unconditional, grace-filled, and Christ-rooted love in nine months, than I could have ever imagined.

In meetings at school we talk a lot about el proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje, the teaching-learning process. The phrase makes the process feel truly reciprocal- that we, teachers, learn alongside our students in a mutual exchange. This has been exceedingly true for me throughout my YAGM experience. In this year of intentional living and service, I've received much more (help, grace, patience, joy, hospitality, life lessons etc.) from my host community than I could hope to give. I've thrown together a list of a few of the countless aprendizajes that the twenty-two six and seven year olds with whom I spend my week have taught me.

1. Forgive freely (and often)-Supposedly we're supposed to forgive those who have wronged us not once or twice, but 7 times 70 times. That's a reality in 1st and 2nd grade. Where instead of telling a classmate "I'm sorry" they ask one another if me perdonas?/do you forgive me? That question is posed probably 490 times a week. The answer is always yes, and the confrontation always ends in a hug. They forgive freely, genuinely, easily, and whole-heartedly. They've taught me to be a better forgiver. 
2. Sometimes you need to cry-Tears are pretty common in 1st and 2nd grade. The tears usually don't last too long, and are usually promptly followed by a return to more play and laughter. When my students feel sad or angry or scared or anxious they do not hesitate to express that emotion. They've taught me to honor my emotions and share my feelings with others. 
3. Sometimes you need to laugh-Laughter is the constant soundtrack of my days at IEIMC. There's always time for silliness in the life of a 1st or 2nd grader. When the day starts to feel long, I can always count on a superbly executed armpit fart from Armando to lighten the mood. They've taught me to never take myself too seriously and that laughter truly is the best medicine. 
4. Commit 100%-On a recent outing to the river, Yuliet, decided that it wasn't time to go just yet. As were all putting our shoes back on and getting ready to walk back to school, she quickly hid one of her shoes and announced to the group that we couldn't leave yet, because she'd lost a shoe. She joined us when we all searched the area for her shoe and acted incredibly relieved when we found it about 10 minutes later. In the dismissal line she admitted to me and Maestra Lupita that she had been the one to hide her shoe in hopes of extending our outing. Yuliet dedicated herself 100% to bringing about the reality she wanted. She showed no hesitation or trepidation, instead she committed fully to her goal. They've taught me to fully commit to the causes that I value.
5. Don't be restricted by "reality"-Most everyday during 10:30am recess, Bryan becomes a dinosaur or gorilla or zombie or shark. The patio of the school becomes his jungle or post-apocalyptic city or ocean, and his classmates become various characters in his story. On days when I patrol recess, I opt to be a mad scientist or jurassic park tourist. His personal make-believe becomes as grand and important as the reality in which the rest of the school is situated. His reality becomes greater than our reality. In a world of increasingly harsh social, economic, and political realities, Bryan reminds me of the critical importance of imagining a better world. He and his classmates remind me of the power creating and living into alternate-realities that fly in the face of the harshness of our world. They've taught me that imagination is critical and powerful.  
6. True art can come out of messes-A few weeks ago, I decided to make a collage with my second grade english class to practice colors and other vocabulary. Within seconds the entire library was covered in scraps of magazine, gluestick tops, and pens and pencils. I had planned on finishing this project in one class period and then swiftly moving on to our next unit. Four class periods later, we were still working our poster-sized collage, and I had all but filed that idea under the "good in theory, terrible in execution" tab. But, to my surprise my students loved the project and actually learned the targeted vocabulary. Beauty can come out of messes and successes can come from perceived failures. They've taught me how to encounter beauty in the unexpected.
7. Love more- Every day at school begins and ends with a series of first and second grade hugs. They write cards to their classmates reminding them that te quiero, I love you or that they'll be mejores amigos por siempre best friends forever. They love without condition and express that love fearlessly. They've taught me to radically love others.
   
   
   
   

culpable

On February 11th, YAGMexico sat in silence in the public viewing gallery of the Tucson, Arizona US District Court. We watched 46 migrants be criminally sentenced in 45 minutes through proceedings called Operation Streamline. We listened to 46 migrants plead culpable to charges of illegal entry or reentry after deportation. Almost three months later, I'm honestly still shocked by what we witnessed. Here are some facts and feelings regarding Operation Streamline.

Plaque outside the Tucson, AZ US District Court

FACTS:

• Operation Streamline is a program of en masse, fast-track criminal prosecution of immigrants in federal courts along many sectors of the US/Mexico border. 
• Operation Streamline began in Del Rio, Texas in 2005 and was expanded to Tucson in 2008. At the height of the program, Streamline was operating in six of the nine sectors on the southern US border with Mexico, in every state on that border but California. It continues to operate in Tucson, Del Rio, and Laredo sectors today. 
• Statutes criminalizing illegal entry and re-entry were passed as part of the McCarran-Walter Act in 1952, but were rarely enforced before 1986. The vast majority of migrants caught crossing the border without authorization before 2004 were returned or deported through the civil immigration system without criminal prosecution. 
• Prosecutions climbed slowly throughout the 1990's and skyrocketed beginning in about 2004, largely as a result of Operation Streamline. 
• Approximately 700,000 people have been prosecuted for illegal entry or re-entry since Operation Streamline began. Almost 70,000 migrants were criminally prosecuted at the border during the federal fiscal year 2015 alone. 
• The US spent over $5.5 billion dollars incarcerating criminally prosecuted migrants between 2006 and 2011. Private prison companies made a profit of $246,561 per day for incarcerating migrants on criminal charges in 2011 alone. 
• The two largest US private prison companies CCA (Corrections Corporation of America) and GEO Group inc, received more than $1.4 billion in revenue from federal government contracts in 2011. 
• CCA and individuals closely affiliated with that corporation have provided Arizona Senator, John McCain with over $30,000 in campaign donations during the course of his career. John McCain has long championed Operation Streamline as an effective facet of the US border policy of "prevention through deterrence"
• Latin@s now make up more than half of all those sentenced to federal prison, despite only comprising 17% of the country's population, due in large part to the criminalization of immigration. 
• In Tucson, up to 70 migrants can appear in court in one hearing lasting less than two hours. All defendants receive between 30 to 180 days. All defendants are shackled during the court proceedings. 
• Prior to the court proceedings, the migrants meet with a public defender who explains the charges, describes the offer of a plea agreement, and conveys the migrant's options. In Tucson, migrants may have up to 30 minutes of one on one time with their lawyer. 
• As a result of the en masse hearings and severely limited time with legal counsel, Operation Streamline raises serious and troubling questions of breeches in constitutionally protected due process.  
• Streamlined people bear lifelong criminal records and severely damaged chances of ever being able to return to the United States with valid immigration status. 

FEELINGS:

• I felt nauseated when the first group of migrants stood before the judge and it was announced that they were detained near Douglas, Arizona on February 9th. 
• I felt embarrassed knowing that my group was touring the Douglas, AZ Border Patrol station while they were detained. While we stood squinting in the sun looking in BP's state of the art ATVs and trucks-equipped for optimal human detection, they sat inside holding cells uncertain of what would await them. 
• I felt my heart sink remembering the words of Officer Cody, "we can't take you in the holding cells because they are occupied."
• I felt suffocated in my own privilege, knowing that our feet had trod along the same route--from the border wall, to the BP station, to the Tucson US District court. Mine sat freely, theirs sat shackled. 
• I felt anxious during the few second lag time between the judge's words and the translator's response. 
• I felt disillusioned that my four years of studying political systems and processes left me with no explanation for these crooked proceedings. 
• I felt powerless as the proceedings continued undeterred. As I watched more young migrants shuffle out of the court room sentenced to 30, 60, 90, 180 days seemingly indiscriminately. 
• I felt hopeful when one young man asked the court to allow him to serve his sentence in LA, to be closer to his daughter-a US citizen. 
• I felt angry at the past eleven years in which I'd lived in blissful ignorance of this process and bastardization of our legal system. 
• I felt even more disgusted by the concept of private, for-profit prisons as I watched each group of migrants exit the courtroom, in chains, as if they had price tags on their backs. Sold to forces of insatiable greed. 
• I felt called to bear witness to this injustice. 
• I felt called to share this experience. 
• I felt called to honor the 46 migrants who were convicted, who were labeled as culpable. 

The facts presented here were complied from presentations given to our group in Tucson, AZ by organizations such as the End Streamline Coalition and No More Deaths/No Mas Muertes. Learn more by visiting their websites:

http://derechoshumanosaz.net/projects/coalition-work/the-criminalization-of-migration/end-streamline-coalition/

http://forms.nomoredeaths.org/en/